hawley



(No Model.)

B. R. HAWLEY. HOUSE. Patented July 19, 1881..

Ann Z NE55E5 IVE FUR;

N. PETERS, Phulo-Lithognphlr. Wihingiun. ac.

UNITED STATES PATENT. ()FFICE.

HAWLEY, OF

SAME PLACE.

HOUSE.-

SPEOIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 244,455, dated July 19, 1881.

v I Application filed November 22, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN R. HAWLEY, of Ghicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Houses, of which the following is a specification.

It is now customary. to construct dwellinghouses and other buildings which require to be warmed in cold weather with open spaces between the floors and the ceilings immediately under them, such spaces being divided by the joists into long passages, reaching usually from one side of the room or building to the other side, and to leave open the junctions of these under-floor spaces with the vertical passage-ways or unfilled hollows between the stud ding of partition-walls and with thelike spaces in the outer walls of the building caused by the furring out of the plastering upon the interior of the same. This feature of the ordinary construction is subject to the very serious objection that the cold air, entering through the outer wall, or rendered cold by contact therewith or with some unwarmed portion of the house, finds its way to the part which is warmed, thereby chilling the latter and cansing a necessity for a high and unhealthy degree of heat to overcome the cold so received; and in this way, also, the floor, which is the most easily-chilled portion of the room, and should be the warmest, is kept cold.

My invention, which relates to this class of buildings, is designed to obviate this objection; and it consists in closing the communication between the floor-spaces and the spaces in walls and partitions by means substantially such as are hereinafter described.

In the drawings accompanying this specification and forming a part of the same, Figure 1 shows a section of the house constructed in the old way; and Fig. 2 shows my improved construction in a like view. Figs.3 and 4 show modifications of the invention, as will fully appear from the description.

In the drawings, A,Wherever used, represents the exterior wall of the building, B the floor, B the joists, and O the ceiling. The floor and ceiling may or may not be secured to furringstrips b, laid across the joists, as such furringstrips do not affect my present invention.

D D are furringor studding pieces, employed either for the purpose of making an air-space between the wall and side plastering, D, or for furrin g out the latter to a line with the windowoasing D In Fig. lit will be noticed that the air in the space between the wall and plastering, and which is cold from contact with the former, is at liberty to pass down beneaththe floor of the apartment or up to the under side of the floor of the apartment above, as shown by the arrows, and ifthese wall spaces are open from top to bottom of the house, as they usually are, it will be seen that air from the basement of the house may and will pass up to the roof, affecting and carrying off the heat from every room whose boundaries it touches in its.

ascent, and as fresh cold is continually filling the place of that which has risen, it follows that the operation described is carried on so long as the differences in temperature remain to cause it. In Fig. 2 I show the communication between this wall-space and the floor of the apartment closed by continuing the floor clear to the wall, and so as to form aclose joint therewith, as at m, and the opening betweenthe same Wall-space andv the floor-space above closed by a plank, n, laid along the wall under the joists and extending from the wall to a; junction with the ceiling. With this construction it is obvious thatthe air in said wall-space can only come in contact with that apartment and cannot escape to aifect any other, and likewise that cold air from above or below cannot reach the floor-space under said apartment through said wall-opening. j Each story of the building is built in the same manner as above described, although the invention may be profitably employed in buildings of only one story. I propose, also, to close the top and bottom of all open spaces in partitions in the same way, and thus shut off all communication between the different floors, leaving each apartment to warm only the cold which reaches it through its own exterior walls. This is shown in Figs. 3 and 4, as will now be explained.

In Fig. 3 the invention is applied to an apartment having a closet. In the ordinary construction the joists are left uncovered below, and hence there is formed above the closet and beneath the floor above what is really a lateral enlargement of the wall or partition space. I seal the under surface of the joists by plastering or elosely-joined boards 0, the same extending from the wall to the side plastering and forming close joints with both. This sealing 0, it will also be noticed, closes the tops of the s aces between the studding in the partition which forms the closet, and the bottom of the same spaces are closed by the floor which is continuous under both room and closet. i

In Fig. 4, the top sealing-board, n, is made to extend over and to closethe extra width of open- 1n gcaused by the cornice. Afolding-door pocket is also shown in this figure, which is sealed at top, bottonnand inside edges, as shown at p p 1;, so that the air within the partition-wall in which the dooris located is thoroughly and perfectly excluded from the apartments. If the pocket were open at any ofthese points this would not be the case. I am aware these vertical openings have been closed up more or less perfectly by extending the floors out to the walls, as at s,- but where such has been done -the floor-spaces above have not been closed,

so that air from the next story above is permitted to flow down such wall-spaces, at least as far as the point 8. Partitions may have been closed above and below, as shown, but that construction has not been accompanied by the use of sealing devices at the walls, and hence my object herein has not been accomplished.

I elain1- 1. The building having the open-floor spaces and the vertical wall and partition spaces,or the floor-spaces and vertical wall spaces only, and provided with sealing devices, substantially such as described, located at the junction of the vertical spaces with both floors and ceilin gs,whereby communication between the vertical and the floor spaces is prevented, substantially as set forth.

2. The building having the sliding-door pocket sealed at top, bottom, and inside edges against the admission ofair from the studdingspaces, substantially as set forth.

B. R. HAW'LEY.

Witnesses EDWARD S. EVARTS, EDMUND ADOOGK. 

